The Legend of Zelda Story

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Based on the limitations of the Nintendo Entertainment System, The Legend of Zelda's story is not exactly detailed, or even evident. Players are simply thrown into the game, without any knowledge of what to do, barring the short intro paragraph in the Game Intro.

Plot

This story is taken directly from the western localization of the game's instruction manual...
Impa-LoZ.jpg

A long, long time ago the World was in an age of Chaos. In the midst of this chaos, in a little kingdom in the land of Hyrule, a legend was being handed down from generation to generation, the legend of the "Triforce"; golden triangles possessing mystical powers.

One day, an evil army attacked this peaceful little kingdom and stole the Triforce of Power. This army was led by Ganon, the powerful Prince of Darkness who sought to plunge the World into fear and darkness under his rule. Fearing his wicked rule, Zelda, the princess of this kingdom, split up the Triforce of Wisdom into eight fragments and hid them throughout the realm to save the last remaining Triforce from the clutches of the evil Ganon. At the same time, she commanded her most trustworthy nursemaid, Impa, to secretly escape into the land and go find a man with enough courage to destroy the evil Ganon. Upon hearing this, Ganon grew angry, imprisoned the princess, and sent out a party in search of Impa.

Braving forests and mountains, Impa fled for her life from her pursuers. As she reached the very limit of her energy she found herself surrounded by Ganon's evil henchmen. Cornered! What could she do? ... But wait! All was not lost. A young lad appeared. He skillfully drove off Ganon's henchmen, and saved Impa from a fate worse than death.

His name was Link. During his travels he had come across Impa and Ganon's henchmen. Impa told Link the whole story of the princess Zelda and the evil Ganon. Burning with a sense of justice, Link resolved to save Zelda, but Ganon was a powerful opponent. He held the Triforce of Power. And so, in order to fight off Ganon, Link had to bring the scattered eight fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom together to rebuild the mystical triangle. If he couldn't do this, there would be no chance Link could fight his way into Death Mountain where Ganon lived.

Can Link really destroy Ganon and save princess Zelda? Only your skill can answer that question. Good luck. Use the Triforce wisely.

Storyline

Spoiler Alert! This section describes a subject that is sensitive to plot development.

The player begins as Link, a young traveler who has just defeated some of Ganon's henchmen, and been informed of the imprisonment of Princess Zelda. After obtaining the Sword from the Old Man in a cave nearby, Link makes his way across a very wild Hyrule. There is no dialog, nor is Link given a map or any hint whatsoever as to the whereabouts of Zelda, Ganon, the Triforce Shards he has been asked to collect, or any dungeon. In fact, he only meets a few people, none of which have names, and mostly only serve as shop owners. Link somehow moves from dungeon to dungeon, managing to find upgraded items, such as the Magical Sword, Magical Boomerang, and the Red Ring and the Blue Ring. Finally, Link makes his way into Level 9: Death Mountain, blowing open a hole in Spectacle Rock and proceeding to Ganon's inner sanctum. After defeating Ganon and taking back the Triforce of Power, which he unrightfully stole, Zelda and Link raise up the Triforce of Wisdom and of Power, respectively, and the game cuts to credits. There is then an opportunity to replay the game in a Second Quest, in which all the dungeons are moved around, and are more difficult.